If you have kids in CA public school... Federal court case forcing the state to disclose to a non-profit

If you have kids in CA public school... Federal court case forcing the state to disclose to a non-profit

I just read an alarming story about a federal court order that is forcing the State of California to release students' personal information, including students' names, social security numbers and home addresses to a non-profit organization. See the attached link to NBC San Diego's website for details.

California Student Information Released to Nonprofit

Information about millions of students will be released to the Concerned Parents Association

The detail of the lawsuit and the federal court notice can be found in the attached PDF, “order2016jan26,” found on the website of California Department of Education. (So it looks pretty legit, not a hoax.)

There's an opt-out form that parents and/or adult former students could file before April 1, 2016. The students’ information that the non-profit is requesting dates back to January 1, 2008.

Then a person I know asked her kid school and got this answer:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING CONFIDENTIAL STUDENT DATA

A recent lawsuit against the California Department of Education (CDE) is impacting all school districts across the state, including San Diego Unified.

In April 2012, two organizations, the Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association and the Concerned Parent Association, filed a lawsuit against the CDE alleging widespread, systemic non-compliance by local education agencies with special education laws. The suit also alleges the CDE fails to monitor, investigate and correct such non-compliance in accordance with the law. The CDE denies these allegations and is actively defending the litigation.

Our district was not involved in the lawsuit and is not the subject of any of the suit’s allegations.

Nonetheless, as a part of this lawsuit, CDE has been ordered by the court to release all data it has collected on general and special education students since Jan. 1, 2008.

For more information regarding the release of this data and how you can file an objection with the court to consider not releasing your data, visit: http://www.cde.ca.gov/morganhillcase. You may also contact the California Department of Education at 916-319-0800.